Crocbot's Revenge
by Chronos the Cat
Summary: Another summary. What if Tails had stayed in Downunda after his miniseries?


A Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Fic

by Chronos the Cat

TAiLS: Crocbot's Revenge

Part One

Chapter One:

Southern Crossover

It all started when Rotor built Tails a mini-submarine, the Sea Fox. Feeling Tails wasn't old enough, Princess Sally ordered Rotor not to give it any oil, so it wouldn't run. But Tails refused to abide by that decision. Discovering a small oil spill, he filled the Sea Fox's crankcase, then traced the oil to Robotnik's underwater Roboticizer, run by Robotnik's underwater under-boss, Octobot. Using the Sea Fox, Tails blew up the roboticizer. He then headed home to boast of his deeds.

However, the Freedom Fighters didn't believe him, and continued to treat him as a child. In anger he decided to run away (very adult of him, don't you think?). Cruising the ocean in his Sea Fox, he came upon a small, nearly deserted island. Upon it he found and rescued the beautiful young female fox, Fiona. 

Tails fell in love with the fox, and believed she shared his love, with some justification. It was all a trick however, designed by Robotnik himself. Fiona was an android duplicate built by Robotnik, and she was nearly able to roboticize Tails. He barely managed to escaped. 

Determined to fulfill her master's wishes, Fiona attacked Tails. Tails was forced to fight the fox he loved, but couldn't bring himself to finish her off. His sentimentality nearly did him in, but luckily Fiona wasn't waterproof, and after a dunk in the ocean, rusted solid. 

As Tails prepared to head home, he discovered that Robotnik would soon be sending a supply blimp to another one of his underbosses, one the Freedom Fighters had been unaware of-- Crocbot, underboss of Downunda. 

Tails headed to Downunda, along the way befriending an ocean-going Freedom Fighter group, the Forty Fathoms Freedom Fighters, who helped him fight Octobot again.

In Downunda, Tails met another group of Freedom Fighters, the Downunda Freedom Fighters: Walt Wallaby, Barby Koala, Bill Platypus, Guru Emu, and Wombat Stu. He also met the Echidna Athair, in a crater Athair claimed was the former site of the Floating Island. Athair declared that Tails was the Chosen One of the Ancient Walkers, destined to unleash the true power of the Chaos Emeralds for the good of the planet.

Reuniting with the Downunda FF, Tails battled Crocbot, apparently destroying him, sending his tank into the crater, resulting in a huge explosion. (Athair was remarkably unaffected by this explosion.)

The Downunda FF asked Tails to stay with them. Tired of being unappreciated at home, Tails decided to accept their offer. However, he still loved the FF as family even if he felt his fighting skills weren't appreciated there. 

Thus, he headed home to tell the FF where he was. (The sea-fox was equipped with a communications system, but it wouldn't work over such a long distance.) 

The FF had been worried sick about him, and were grateful for his safe return. When he announced he planed on returning to Downunda, they were understandably upset, but they were unable to convince him otherwise. Even if they did take him more seriously now, it wouldn't be enough. The Knothole Freedom Fighters didn't need him. In Downunda, however, he felt he could be useful. 

He soon departed once more for Downunda.

Chapter Two:

The Endgame

In Downunda, Tails discovered that Barby had a thing for him. He was just old enough to appreciate this. (And I'm sure he also appreciated the fact that Sally wasn't around to point out that Barby was a little old for him.)

Unfortunately, life in Downunda wasn't as exiting as Tails had thought it would be. Robotnik had apparently given up on it for the time being, and Crocbot was gone. In fact, the most interesting thing that happened during that time was a visit from Knuckles the Echidna, who was on a mission for Princess Sally to find the Sword of Acorns. Knuckles suspected the Ancient Walkers might know something about it, and had heard of Tails' encounter with them and Athair in Downunda. Tails took him to the Crater, where they were given a vision of the quest that would be necessary to undertake to acquire the sword. 

Bored with life in Downunda, Tails wanted to go with Knuckles, but Knuckles refused his offer of help. Knuckles worked alone.

Perhaps Tails should have been careful what he wished for, however, for life in Downunda soon got quite a bit more exiting...

One day, Tails and the DUFF were ambushed by robots, a new type called "Combots". They fought valiantly, but were outnumbered and outgunned. The robots took them captive, and brought them to the crater, which had been converted into a slave labor mine, run by the rebuilt Crocbot. 

They were separated into pairs and subjected to horrible torture, Tails especially. 

Walt and Barby were put together in one cell. They had no contact with any of the others, and had no idea if any of the others were even alive...

Then, one day, they got new cellmates: Antoine and Bunnie of the Knothole Freedom Fighters! Bunnie and Antoine had been captured by a traitorous Wolf, and sent to Downunda. Bunnie's cybernetic parts had been wired to a bomb placed on Antoine, to prevent her from using them to escape.

Working together, the four Freedom Fighters were able to disconnect the bomb, and escape. They then explored the prison. In one cell, they found Guru Emu and Wombat Stu, injured by Crocbot's torture, but otherwise all right. In another, they found Bill Platypus and Tails. Bill had been injured more than the others, but it was nothing compared to Tails. Tails was in such bad shape, it was uncertain whether he would survive. 

They decided that barring Athair's return, Doctor Quack would have the best chance of saving him. But that meant getting Tails back to Knothole fast.

Bunnie and Antoine took Tails, and snuck on board an AirBus heading for Robotropolis with a shipment of ore from the mine. On board, they discovered that Robotnik intended to use this ore in a doomsday weapon called the Ultimate Annihilator.

When the bus reached Robotropolis, they stole a bomb and tried to blow up the UA. They were too late, but luckily, Robotnik's assistant Snively had sabotaged the device, and the only one the UA ended up killing was Robotnik himself.

Bunnie and Antoine took Tails back to Knothole, where Doc Quack treated him.

Thanks to the Doctor's skill, Tails was saved from dying. However, it would be many months before he was fully healed. It would even be several weeks before he would be strong enough to get out of bed. And the doctor had more bad news-- Tails' tails had been so badly injured, it was extremely unlikely he'd ever fly again...

A day or two later, they received a letter from the DUFF, saying they'd defeated Crocbot and were doing fine.

Chapter Three:

Roboticization is Forever...

Soon, the inhabitants of Knothole began moving to the city, now renamed Mobotropolis. As soon as Tails could walk, he joined them. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that all the roboticized Mobians in the city had recovered their free will.

As the weeks and months passed, and the city was slowly rebuilt, Tails continued to recover. However, long before the last of his wounds were healed, it became apparent Doc Quack had been right: his tails were not going to heal properly. 

Unable to accept the possibility of never flying again, Tails resorted to drastic measures. "Borrowing" a neuro-overrider from Rotor, he used an abandoned roboticizer to roboticize himself.

When she found out, Sally was infuriated. She insisted he be de-roboticized, but relented when Sir Charles warned that that might kill him. The roboticizer had been originally designed as a medical device, but Charles had never devised a procedure to safely deroboticize those it had healed...

Tails, for his part, was well satisfied with the result. He could fly now, and his body was much more powerful than before. It was a worthwhile trade-off for the "pleasures of the flesh" (at least those which he had experienced...).

What he hadn't counted on was the anti-"Robian" prejudice that was growing in the Mobian population...

Soon, Knuckles sent a distress call from the Floating Island. The Freedom Fighters (including Tails) headed there, to discover the echidna city of Echidnaopolis under attack from the immortal Mammoth Mogul, who had the Sword of Acorns, and the power of twelve Chaos Emeralds.

Knuckles and the Freedom Fighters stood little chance against the emerald-powered super-being. But then, the Ancient Walkers manipulated events to grant Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails the power to transform into their ascended forms: Super Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Turbo Tails. All of their powers were greatly enhanced, but none more than Tails, who was already quite formidable as a robot.

Under their attack, the villain was forced to retreat temporarily. But the place he chose to escape to was the Chaos Chamber, where the Island's two Emeralds were held. 

He attempted to absorb the power of those emeralds and become even stronger. But the Ancient Walkers granted Tails a device thought destroyed centuries ago: the Chaos Siphon. Tails was able to siphon off quite a bit of chaos energy for himself before Mammoth Mogul destroyed the device. 

The two titans continued to tussle, but though Tails seemed to have a good chance of winning, it seemed likely that the Chaos Chamber would be destroyed first. And so, Locke and Sabre of the secret Brotherhood of Guardians used the power of the two Emeralds to seal Mammoth Mogul inside the "Master Emerald."

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails all returned to normal. Unfortunately, normal for Tails apparently now meant robotic...

Taking the Sword of Acorns, the Freedom Fighters returned to Mobotropolis. Much to their distress, in their absence the city had been driven into civil war by the Sorcerer Ixis Naugus, with Mobians fighting Robians. Sonic used the Sword to drive the Sorcerer out, restoring the city to normal.

However, the Sorcerer still lived, and it was feared he might return. Thus, Sonic and Tails decided to set out to find him and bring him to justice...

Chapter Four:

World Tour

Sonic and Tails' first stop along on their search for Naugus was in the Kingdom of Mercia, where they helped Knuckles free a tribe of Echidnas from the evil, robotic, High Sheriff (who they were shocked to discover had once been Antoine's dad, General D'Coolette).

Then they were sucked into an alternate Zone, where they met the nearly omnipotent warlords, Hal and Cal. 

Sonic had met Hal and Cal once before. At that time they had just been two crazy, fun-loving guys. But now, thanks to the effects of the Ultimate Annihilator, they were two crazy, war-loving titans. They brainwashed Sonic and Tails to fight for them in their war against each other.

With his mechanical abilities, Tails won, but when he was ordered to strike the deathblow, his love for his friend won out, and the brainwashing was broken. He took Sonic and left.

Out of the Zone, Sonic returned to normal, and they continued on their way. 

Their next stop was in Lau Kar at Mount Stormtop. This mountain had been engulfed in an eternal sea of flames by an evil sorceress at the request of an ox named the Iron King. The Iron King, and the heat from his mountain, threatened a nearby village, so they teamed up with the cloud-riding Monkey Khan to fight the Iron King and retrieve the magic fan which could put out the flames. 

Finally, the trail led to Downunda. They found the land in turmoil. They teamed up with Barby (who was quite glad to see Tails again, even if he was robotic) and Walt. Together they rescued Guru Emu and Wombat Stu, who had been captured by militant platypuses. 

Afterwards, the DUFF explained how after beating Crocbot, they had worked to clean up the crater. But then, Bill Platypus had run off and gathered a group of Platypuses, who began causing trouble.

The group now investigated this, and discovered that while they had been imprisoned by Crocbot, Crocbot had brainwashed Bill. The brainwashing had lain dormant until he'd found the remains of Crocbot. Then it had activated, making him run off and begin rebuilding Crocbot and his empire. 

Sonic, Tails, and the DUFF captured Bill, and disconnected Crocbot. Not wanting to delay their search for Naugus, Sonic and Tails left, with Crocbot's remains, leaving the DUFF to see to Bill.

They next stopped in Sandblast City, where Sonic was tempted to stay. But despite the pleasant accommodations, the hero-worship, and the chicks and vixen (and I use those terms literally), Sonic decided to follow his duty and go defeat Naugus. Sandblast's leader, Jack Rabbit, was rather... **insistent **Sonic stay, but Sonic declined...

Finally, Sonic and Tails caught up with Naugus in the Southern Tundra. There they met the kindly old Overlander scientist Nate Morgan, who helped them beat Naugus. (Who am I kidding? Nate had the matter well in hand the whole time, while nothing Sonic and Tails did could even put a dent in Naugus...)

Nate decided to return with them to Mobotropolis.

They got back just in time to meet Sally's long lost brother Elias as he made his triumphant return. Afterwards, the Freedom Fighters and their friends all headed over to Knothole to celebrate Sonic's sixteenth birthday. 

Part Two:

Chapter One:

Missing Persons

The next morning, Sonic was surprised to see that Tails wasn't around. He asked around, but he hadn't told anyone he'd be going anywhere.

Later that morning, the Freedom Fighters took a tour of the rebuilt Mobotropolis. Sonic wasn't able to fully enjoy it, though, for concern about the missing Tails.

Their tour was interrupted, anyway, when a group of escapees from the Devil's Gulag kidnapped Nate. 

Geoffrey St John's security force followed them to the Isle of West Robotropolis. Sonic also tagged along, unasked for. They captured some of the escapees, but others escaped again, when a giant robotic squid burst out of the floor and attacked. The good guys defeated the squid, but not before the escapees stole Sonic's plane. This was doubly annoying, for Sonic had never gotten around to taking Crocbot's remains out of the plane.

When Tails failed to show up over the next few days, the Freedom Fighters began to become concerned... 

Tails was not the only mysterious disappearance. Over the next few weeks, many more Robians also went missing, without a trace.

Since almost all Robians now lived in Knothole, security at the village was tightened. The disappearances lessened, but did not stop. However, soon normal Mobians from Mobotropolis began disappearing as well...

Geoffrey St. John and his security forces investigated the matter, and discovered that the salvage corporation hired by the king to dispose of Robotnik's leftover machines was responsible. Instead of disposing of the machinery, they had transported it to a secret factory in the badlands, where the kidnapped robots and Mobians had been forced to work building Combots and other war machines. The president of the company was arrested, and the prisoners freed. 

Unfortunately, some of the Robians, including Tails, were not found... Also, although the factory had been hard at work producing war robots, where these robots had been sent after being built could also not be discovered...

Chapter Two:

The Sword of Acorns

Even though Tails had not yet been found, Rotor missed his family, and decided to head back home to the Arctic. 

Then came the terrible day an army of robots attacked Mobotropolis, led by Mecha Tails himself. Their master: Crocbot!

The Freedom Fighters assumed Tails must have been re-programmed. They all wished they could save him, Sonic especially. Unfortunately, they had a higher priority: assisting the population evacuate the city!

With their help, most of the population, including the royal family, escaped to Knothole.

Later, the King proclaimed that hereafter, the Village of Knothole would be known as the Kingdom of Knothole. 

The Queen's condition deteriorating, Elias ventured into Mobotropolis to get medicine for Queen Alicia, but was captured by the robots.

Sonic and the King led a force into the city to rescue Elias. 

Running Mobotropolis in Crocbot's absence was Mecha Tails.

In the battle, the King's sword seemed to temporarily restore Tails free will, but before Sonic could do anything about this, the King was injured, and the robots took Tails away. 

Sonic and the troops took Elias and the King back to Knothole. 

While Dr. Quack tended to the King, Sonic borrowed the Sword of Acorns (without permission, unfortunately) to go free Tails. 

Sonic made it into Mobotropolis with little trouble, but once in the city, he was unable to find Tails. Instead, he was captured by Combots and the Sword taken from him.

Sonic was brought to the throne room, where Crocbot was waiting for him. Crocbot took this chance to torment Sonic. He brought in Tails, and explained how Crocbot had gained Tails' assistance... During the Downunda Freedom Fighters' incarceration, Crocbot had brainwashed not only Bill Platypus, but Tails as well. When Tails had seen Crocbot's body, the programming had activated, and as soon as he had had the opportunity, he had left with Crocbot's body to begin rebuilding both Crocbot and his empire...

So, thanks to Crocbot's brainwashing, Tails was responsible for Crocbot's return!

The magic of the sword, however, had healed Tails' mind, and Crocbot had been forced to come to the city to restore his brainwashing. He was grateful to Sonic for bringing the Sword to him-- he couldn't allow his enemies possession of such a potent weapon. 

Crocbot still had no roboticizers that would enslave the subjects to his will, so he instead brainwashed his captives. But as Sonic was being taken to the torture chamber, an opportunity to escape presented itself, and Sonic took advantage of it. He then planned on recovering the sword, but then two space ships landed near the city. Sonic went to see who they were, and discovered the passengers to be Overlanders. When the Combots attacked them, Sonic came to their rescue, and led them to safety-- namely, Knothole. 

Chapter Three:

The King of Knothole

When Sonic arrived back in Knothole, he discovered that the King had been paralyzed from the waist down due to his injuries. Feeling unfit for his duties as monarch, he had passed the responsibilities on to Elias. On the good side, the Queen had recovered from her frozen state. 

Elias and Geoffrey St. John were most upset to learn of Sonic's theft and subsequent loss of the Sword. They weren't so hot about him leading a bunch of Overlanders to Knothole, either. As punishment for his reckless actions, Elias forbade Sonic from leaving Knothole. 

As for the Overlanders, they were given the opportunity to settle in Knothole. They stayed for a little while, but it soon became obvious it would never work out. There was too much prejudice on both sides. The Overlanders headed north, to rebuild their city of Mega Central.

Over the next few months, Elias instituted many reforms, making Knothole into a true kingdom, rather than just a hideaway. While he was busy tending to his duties as acting monarch of Knothole, however, he virtually ignored the threat of Crocbot.

Luckily Crocbot apparently also had other things to concern himself with, and no robots troubled the village.

While Sonic was surprised and disappointed in the lack of an effort to overthrow Crocbot, he was even more frustrated by the fact that he found himself cut off from Sally...

Tragically, several months later, King Max fell ill, and died. After the funeral, Elias was crowned the new King of Knothole.

Not long after this, Elias signed a peace-treaty with Crocbot.

Sonic decided enough was enough. He, Bunnie, Antoine, and many sympathetic villagers (some of them former members of the resistance) began discussing what could be done to end this madness. He snuck into the castle to talk with Sally. She revealed that the situation was worse than Sonic realized. Sally suspected her father's illness might not have been natural. It was just too great of a coincidence that the King had fallen ill just as Elias and Crocbot began discussing the possibility of a cease-fire. Unfortunately, Sally was in no position to investigate the matter. As a matter of fact, since Elias's ascension, Sally had become a virtual prisoner.

Needless to say, if Sonic could help her get out from under the Security Forces' watchful eye, she would be more than happy to help Sonic in resisting Elias's madness.

Sonic helped her to escape, and they decided on a place to meet in the great forest to plan.

But when Sonic and the other dissidents arrived at the location, they had a nasty surprise waiting for them. A contingent of Combots, commanded by Mecha Tails himself!

Sally was there already, and Tails revealed that she was the one who had informed Elias and Crocbot of their planned rebellion. 

The Combots captured most of the dissidents, but Sonic was Tails' prey. And when it came down to it, Tails almost won. But something stopped him. He couldn't bring himself to do Sonic in, and it fell to Sally to capture Sonic. She was more than up to the task.

Later, in Mobotropolis, Crocbot arrived to personally reward Sally. Although Crocbot still had no roboticizers which could enslave one to Crocbot's will, using a neuro-overrider (the designs for which he had copied from the one Tails used), he could roboticize one of his servants, and they would remain loyal to him. He now offered this honor to Sally. She gladly accepted. 

As for the dissidents, (Sonic, Bunnie, and Antoine included), they were to be executed. But just before Mecha Sally could do the honors, something went wrong with Mecha Tails. His true personality overrode Crocbot's programming, and he freed the dissidents. He then told them to escape while he held Crocbot off. Sonic was reluctant to leave Tails to handle this alone, but knew that with Sally under Crocbot's sway, it fell to Sonic to lead the Freedom Fighters. 

Sally attempted to stop them, but then Crocbot called her to aid him in defeating Tails, who was beating Crocbot handily. The dissidents escaped, but Tails did not. Weakened by fighting both Crocbot and Sally together, he was unable to resist Crocbot's final, fatal blow. 

The Freedom Fighters later learnt that Elias had been in Crocbot's pocket since the time he'd been captured. Undoubtedly, Sally and other high-ranking individuals had also been brainwashed, with his assistance. 

Chapter Four:

Lord of the Machines

The Freedom Fighters fought against Crocbot and his minions, both in Mobotropolis and Knothole. Without Sally and Tails, the others had to pick up the slack, and also recruited new members, such as Mina the Mongoose. 

As time went by, Crocbot's body began to malfunction. As all attempts to repair it failed, he had a new, better body built. When it was complete, he headed to the laboratory in Downunda where it had been constructed. His assistants activated the body, then transferred his programming from his old body into the new one. 

But then, his old body suddenly came to life, possessed by the chaos emerald augmented spirit of Tails! Tails explained that when Crocbot had destroyed Tails' original body, Tails had felt his spirit enter the nearest mechanical vessel-- Crocbot! Ever since, he had been trying to gain control of his new body-- hence the malfunctions Crocbot had experienced. 

Crocbot attacked his hatted enemy, using all the weapons at his disposal. But though the old Crocbot body Tails inhabited was weaker than Crocbot's new body, Tails had a significant amount of Chaos energy at his disposal, which he now used to his advantage. In the end, Tails triumphed, destroying Crocbot utterly. 

He soon discovered that Crocbot's minions now all obeyed him, assuming him to be the real Crocbot. 

Tails attempted to use the Sword to heal the minds of those brainwashed, but it didn't seem to work. He guessed that perhaps only the King had been able to use it in such a way. 

As magic had failed, Tails began working on technological means of de-brainwashing Crocbot's victims.

Tails took control of Crocbot's empire, using Crocbot's body, and began to make reforms, giving the people greater freedoms. Eventually, of course, he planed on stepping down and restoring the land to freedom. However, until he could de-brainwash Crocbot's minions, that simply wasn't possible. 

The only problem was, the Freedom Fighters didn't know it was now Tails in charge of the two Kingdoms, and continued to fight against him! 


End file.
